The secret of happiness? Embrace the boring and rejoice in repetition | Adrian Chiles

In everything from family life to careers, it doesn't pay to constantly seek the next exciting thing

Upon a box containing some fancy collagen supplement stuff, it said: Life is too short for hard-to-swallow pills and boring powders." Ain't that the truth? How many times have I contemplated swallowing a paracetamol tablet, or wearily stirred some Andrews liver salts into water, and wailed in desperation that life is just too damn short for such chores? Never, obviously.

In a similar vein, do you have an electric vehicle charger at home? Are you, you know, a bit bored with it? I mean, why wouldn't you be? Worry not. Help is at hand. A company specialising in more exciting chargers - colour and finish combinations to choose from!" - invites you to say goodbye to boring chargers". Picture the scene: the whole family, dog and all, gathered together on the drive to bid farewell to the old charger. It charged very nicely but was just too darned boring. The man from Fancy Chargers Ltd has just fitted an exciting new one and he's taking the boring old one away. You wave it off on its final journey, to landfill probably. Emotional.

Adrian Chiles is a broadcaster, writer and Guardian columnist